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A wind of change is moving through domain names

13 January | Posted by @Jean-François Rondeau

2010 has been a period of change for domain names.

On the Canadian scene, the CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) has shifted gears. In fact, domains on a provincial level (eg: .qc.ca, on.ca, etc.) can no longer be purchased. Owners who already have domains that contain these extensions can obviously keep them, but no new domain registrations can be made.

On an international level, mobile websites, for their part, have grown in importance due to the increase in number of smartphones and, consequently, of mobile websites. The .mobi extension has therefore become an essential market asset.

Ever since .com extensions have become less available, .co domains have emerged.

In the beginning, this type of extension was reserved for Colombian companies and only had 28 000 active registrations. Since its arrival on public markets, it has reached 500 000 registrations in a matter of a few months only, due to the connotation it carries, one that suggests “company, corporation and commerce”.

Considering that .co extensions have become successful in so little time, chances are they will become as global and as trustworthy as.com extensions.

Other extensions have also emerged in 2010 without causing much stir, such as .tel and .asia.

IDNs, short for Internationalized Domain Names (eg:www.cinémasguzzo.com), have also made their entrance. These domain names contain non-ASCII characters (accented letters, non-Latin alphabet). Once again, they have not become as popular because they cannot be used for emailing purposes. Therefore, they only serve as secondary domains.

Many discussion boards have given their predictions for 2011. More specifically, they try to guess what will happen to the domain name market, to IDNs which will gain popularity, to .co extensions that may continue as they started out or that may not be renewed.

We will keep you posted about domain names with great pleasure! For more information or to check for domain name availability, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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